Don’t mess with Texas
The joke still going around after 30 years is the one about Chicago White Sox third baseman Robin Ventura getting six hits in one night off of the great Nolan Ryan.
This actually is true.
Alas, this comes in the most unfortunate of ways for Ventura, who 30 years ago tonight in a game in Arlington, Texas, foolishly charges the mound after being hit by a pitch from Ryan in the top of the third inning.
Chicago already is leading 2-0, so the Rangers’ ageless starter clearly does not want to add to his troubles by deliberately hitting Ventura with one of his welt-producing fastballs.
Ventura seems to think otherwise, even though to this point of the 1993 season he is plunked only once with a pitch.
No matter.
Ventura decides he wants to take on Ryan, who is waiting for him at the mound.
Ryan promptly places Ventura in a headlock before hitting him in the head six times. He only stops after being pulled off Ventura.
Apparently no one tells the 26-year-old Ventura ahead of time that Ryan – who is 20 years his senior – is a physical phenom with an abundance of don’t-mess-with-Texas attitude.
Apparently, too, no one tells Ventura that Ryan, the pride of Alvin, Texas, is adept at hitting batters, having drilled 158 of them during his Hall of Fame career.
Coincidentally, Ventura is Ryan’s last victim of that long list of hit batters, a list that begins with Atlanta’s Deron Johnson and the bases loaded on May 24, 1968.
Back then, Ryan is 21 years old and making only his seventh career start in the major leagues while Ventura is mere 45 weeks old. Yes, that’s weeks old.
When Ventura finally grows old enough – in this case, all of 26 – to charge the mound, he not only is rewarded with a half-dozen well-placed noogies from Ryan he also is ejected from the game.
Ventura eventually receives a two-game suspension for his foolishness.
As for Ryan, he remains in the game, working through the seventh inning before picking up the victory as the Rangers rally to beat Chicago 5-2.
As for a fine and suspension, well, this is the great Nolan Ryan so there are no penalties.
The victory also is Ryan’s third of the 1993 season, his last in the game. He wins twice more that summer to finish his career with 324 victories.
“It was just self-preservation,” Ryan says after the game of flattening Ventura.
“I didn’t expect that to happen. I was just trying to pitch him inside. You don’t have time to think, you just react. I’m not a big believer in fights, but we’ll do what it takes to win.”